Retraining for a new career in adult life isn’t easy. Even single people, living alone, with no commitments above making sure that you happen to be standing in the discount aisle at the local supermarket at the right time each night to catch all the grocery bargains, will all discover the difficulty in finding the time to retrain. That’s why mothers wishing to retrain in a career as complex as law are really up against it. You may not realise this, but full-time law courses clock in at about 40-45 hours of learning per week. While you’d expect part-time courses to half those hours (and double the years of study), not all of them do, with courses offering “part-time” study hours that increase the years of study by one year – meaning the hours of study per week are still akin to maintaining a full-time job.
With so much on your plate, you may be wondering how to balance adult learning for your law degree with the parental demands of home life.
Accept certain limits over socialising
We’re not saying you have to bury your head and never squeak so much as a peep to a single coursemate, but the college lifestyle is somewhat full-on, and you probably haven’t got the time to party like most other people on your course. The tip here is to keep your eyes on the prize – study hard and mother hard, the “play hard” bit may have to be shelved for a little while until the exams are over. Try to form relationships with other adult learners on your course, who will understand what you’re going through (see morellilaw.com for a look at what you could achieve).
Ask for technical help
If you are a mother, studying for a law degree, you may have been out of the classroom for some time. This means that you may experience certain setbacks in terms of keeping up with the ‘tech’ side of the course. If you aren’t up to speed on all things internet, ask your course leaders for support. This will free up valuable time that would otherwise be wasted pulling your hair out and asking “why won’t this thing work!”.
Make plans to make plans to make plans…
Where time is not on your side, you need plans. Military-style plans. Finding ways to stick to those plans is another story, but if you want a studying/homelife balance, you’re going to need to pull time out of a hat like a magician. The only way to come close to doing this is with a colour-coded time management chart.
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